The Daily Fuckup

The fight over Donald Trump’s gag order was still moving on Oct. 28, 2023, with no fresh ruling yet from U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan. Prosecutors had already gone back to the court on Oct. 25 and asked her to restore the limits on Trump’s public attacks, arguing that his comments were pressing against the line the court had drawn. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/7dc335e8a828d99f7d4c36acb818050d?utm_source=openai))

The immediate flashpoint was Trump’s public criticism of his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows. In court papers, prosecutors said Meadows was a likely and reasonably foreseeable witness in the election-interference case, and they said Trump’s remarks were not just political rhetoric but an attempt to influence and intimidate someone tied to the proceedings. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/7dc335e8a828d99f7d4c36acb818050d?utm_source=openai))

The chronology matters. Chutkan imposed a narrow gag order on Oct. 16, 2023. A federal appeals court then temporarily lifted it on Oct. 20 while the legal challenge continued. Prosecutors filed their motion to restore the order on Oct. 25. Chutkan later put the restrictions back in place on Oct. 29, after the period this story covers. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/b5f59c6688504c952df5f70029228f9e?utm_source=openai))

So Oct. 28 was not a day of resolution. It was a pause between motions and rulings, with Trump’s own posts and remarks still doing the work of the prosecution for them: each new blast at a potential witness gave the government another example to point to, and another argument that the gag order had to stay in force. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/7dc335e8a828d99f7d4c36acb818050d?utm_source=openai))